After weeks of suspense surrounding the Congress' candidates from Amethi and Raebareli ended today, Rahul Gandhi in a rather surprising nomination was fielded by the grand old party from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, a seat once represented by the former Congress president's grandfather Feroze Gandhi. Follwing the announcement, Rahul Gandhi in the presence of his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi, filed his nomination from the seat on Friday, the last day to do so for the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections which will be held on May 20.
While the Wayanad MP who re-contested the seat in this year's polls has been fielded from another seat for the fifth phase, the Amethi seat will be contested by Congress loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma, who has been closely associated with the Gandhi family since 1983.
Congress is contesting 17 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in a seat-sharing deal with the Samajwadi Party.
After Feroze Gandhi held the Raebareli seat for the first two elections after Independence, it was later nurtured by his wife and former PM Indira Gandhi who won from the seat in 1967, 1971, and 1980. Subsequently, the seat was held by the Gandhi familiy and their friends.
After Indira Gandhi, the Raebareli seat was held by Sonia Gandhi after she vacated the Amethi Lok Sabha seat for her son Rahul Gandhi's political debut in 2004. She then held the seat four times between 2004-2019.
The party's calculation behind fielding Rahul from Raebareli instead of Amethi, seems to rest on the conclusion that the former is a safer seat for the former Congress president, who lost Amethi to BJP's Smriti Irani in 2019 by nearly 50,000 votes.
It is going to be an interesting fight in 2024 Lok Sabha elections to see with whom the two seats, which have been a Congress stronghold end up with.
In Amethi, Congress' Kishori Lal Sharma will be competing against BJP's Smriti Irani who wrested the seat in the last general elections. While in Raebareli Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will compete against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh.
Amethi and Raebareli will go for polling in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on May 5.